Sport

Black Caviar set to equal Phar Lap record

Updated
October 07, 2011 14:46:00

Horse racing fans will be focussed on Caulfield racecourse tomorrow and the performance of Black Caviar, the Australian mare rated as the best thoroughbred sprinter in the world. If she wins, she'll equal the record set by the legendary Phar Lap of 14 consecutive wins.

PETER CAVE: Followers of horse racing will be focused on Caulfield tomorrow and the performance of the mare rated as the best thoroughbred in the world, Australia's Black Caviar.

If she wins it will equal the record set by the legendary Phar Lap of 14 consecutive wins.

Up to 50,000 people are expected at the track with bookies offering just over a dollar on the five-year-old beating home a field of nine in the Schillaci Stakes.

Alison Caldwell reports.

RACE CALLER: This is why she's rated the best in the world. Have a good look at this, Black Caviar is going to be eased down to a canter.

ALISON CALDWELL: Her track rider says with her big hind quarters and a rear end like a V8 engine, Black Caviar is a one in 10 million horse.

In March she was rated the top thoroughbred racehorse in the world by Timeform, making her the highest rated sprinter and mare this year.

She's already won 13 straight races and if she wins her sprint tomorrow she'll equal the record set by the legendary Phar Lap.

Her trainer is Peter Moody.

PETER MOODY: Yeah, she's been out for a bit of light exercise this morning and she's very full of herself and feeling well and I think she is looking forward to getting on with it as much as I am actually.

RACE CALLER: Black Caviar is the leader. She got away from Hay List with 100 metres left to go. Start number 13, unlucky for some, not for this one.

ALISON CALDWELL: That was Black Caviar winning her 13th race in the Doomben Cup in Brisbane in May.

Following a long sabbatical in country Victoria over winter, for the past five weeks she's been back at work at Peter Moody's Caulfield stables in Melbourne's inner south east.

He says she's come back stronger both mentally and physically.

PETER MOODY: She has got the attributes of any good great athlete, you know, I think she has learnt to realise how good she is. You know, she has learnt how to strike a pose and she used to be big and strong and bullish as a young horse but now she is more laid back and relaxed and she is taking in everything in her stride and soaking up the pressure of the play.

ALISON CALDWELL: So tomorrow, tell us what will happen?

PETER MOODY: It is only 1,000 metre race tomorrow so there is a couple of very fast horses in it so I would imagine that she'll probably race around mid-field. I think there is nine runners in total so she'll probably be running third, fourth, fifth and one would hope as has happened in the past, she should be too strong for them in the final 200 or 300 metres. She should be able to run over the top of them.

ALISON CALDWELL: So if she wins, she equals Phar Lap's record. What does that mean for you?

PETER MOODY: Oh, listen, there is not much. People are drawing comparisons of two great horses seven or eight decades apart and I don't think that is very fair but you know, it would certainly be crowning for her but she is equalling a record that Phar Lap did in I think it was something over 120 days back when horses used to race two or three times a week and he was a hell of a horse and obviously well before our time.

But her unique quality is that she is the first horse that has ever done it from day one and remained undefeated and you know, that can never be taken away from her and every time she goes to the races, someone is coming up with some type of record for her to equal or break but the really unique quality with her is that she is totally undefeated up to this stage, up to 13 and hopefully after tomorrow 14 and no other horse has done that in the history of Australian racing.

ALISON CALDWELL: Such is the love for Black Caviar that no race caller wants to be the one to call her first loss.

Greg Miles will be calling her sprint tomorrow afternoon.

GREG MILES: The focus will clearly be on one horse despite the fact that this is the real start of the Spring Carnival for the year and we have got other group one races, here is a group two that is going to be the focus of all attention because we have got the greatest horse in the world, the greatest sprinter, Black Caviar and it is quite surreal even for someone who has been in the racing game for a long, long time to be looking forward to linking that name with this great horse.

ALISON CALDWELL: Do you think that there is a horse out there in the world, any horse that could beat her at that course?

GREG MILES: Right now from what I know of the sprinters in the world, there is not a horse around that could trouble her. That's how good she is. Being kept to these sort of short distances, she has proven herself to be the greatest in the world.

ALISON CALDWELL: Being a specialist sprinter, Black Caviar won't race in the Cox Plate or the Melbourne Cup, but her team is hoping to race her at Royal Ascot next June.